Sweepstakes Casinos in the US: Where They Are Banned, State by State
The dual-currency sweepstakes model spread precisely because it claimed not to be gambling; since late 2025 state legislatures and attorneys general have been answering that claim, and the answer keeps being no. 13states now ban or enforce against the model, six operators have shut down nationally, and Oklahoma's ban arrives 1 November 2026. The map below is the current position, row by row.
What this means for you, as of 11 August 2026
Every action in this wave targets operators, not players: bans criminalise offering the product, and no state in this table has prosecuted an individual for playing on a sweepstakes site. What a player actually experiences is abrupt exits: account closures, redemption deadlines and sometimes stranded balances when an operator leaves a state on short notice. If you hold a balance in a state with a pending effective date (Oklahoma, 1 November), redeeming before the deadline is the practical move.
We do not recommend any US-facing gambling site: every operator in our own review catalogue restricts the United States, so this page is legal-status reference, not a route to an alternative.
The state-by-state matrix
| Jurisdiction | Status | What changed, and when | What it means for a player | Source · as of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | Banned (statute) | AB 831 signed 11 Oct 2025; operators wound down by 31 Dec 2025 | Sweepstakes casinos exited; dual-currency sites are illegal to operate here. | PlayUSA tracker 2026-08-11 |
| Connecticut | Banned (statute) | Ban in effect 1 Oct 2025 | Operators exited at the effective date. | Bettors Insider 2026-08-11 |
| Montana | Banned (statute) | Ban in effect 1 Oct 2025 | Operators exited at the effective date. | Bettors Insider 2026-08-11 |
| Indiana | Banned (statute) | HB 1052 signed 12 Mar 2026; in force 1 Jul 2026 | Operators required out from July; expect account closures if any linger. | Bettors Insider 2026-08-11 |
| Maine | Banned (statute) | LD 2007 signed 6 Apr 2026; in force 14 Jul 2026 | Ban live since mid-July; Maine also legalised regulated iGaming this year, so a licensed alternative exists. | Bettors Insider 2026-08-11 |
| Oklahoma | Ban enacted, not yet in force | SB 1589 enacted by veto override; effective 1 Nov 2026 | Sites remain reachable until November; expect wind-down notices this autumn. | BrightSideOfNews round-up 2026-08-11 |
| New Jersey | Banned (statute) | Statutory ban, 2025-26 wave | One of the first regulated-iGaming states to close the sweepstakes lane. | PlayUSA tracker 2026-08-11 |
| New York | Banned (statute) | Statutory ban, 2025-26 wave | Operators exited; enforcement backed by AG attention. | RG.org New York status 2026-08-11 |
| Louisiana | Banned (statute) | Statutory ban, 2025-26 wave | Operators exited. | PlayUSA tracker 2026-08-11 |
| Tennessee | Banned (statute) | Statutory ban; AG Skrmetti ordered 38 sites to halt | The most aggressive AG enforcement so far: named-site orders, not just a statute. | BrightSideOfNews crackdown report 2026-08-11 |
| Nevada | Banned (enforcement) | Enforcement under existing gambling law, tightened 2025-26 | No sweepstakes lane in the strictest land-based state. | Lines.com state map 2026-08-11 |
| Idaho | Banned (enforcement) | Pre-existing law applied to sweepstakes operators | Treated as illegal gambling without a new statute. | Lines.com state map 2026-08-11 |
| Michigan | Banned (enforcement) | MGCB enforcement under existing law | Cease-and-desist-driven exits in a regulated-iGaming state. | Lines.com state map 2026-08-11 |
| Washington | Banned (enforcement) | Pre-existing law applied; long-standing hard line on online gambling | Same state now litigating prediction markets; the strictest posture in the country. | Lines.com state map 2026-08-11 |
| Illinois | Enforcement wave | 65 cease-and-desist letters issued May 2026 | No ban statute on the books yet; the C&D wave is doing the work. Watch for codification. | BrightSideOfNews crackdown report 2026-08-11 |
| Federal (DOJ) | Unresolved | 50-state AG coalition letter urging federal action, late 2025; response pending | A federal move would overtake the state-by-state map at a stroke. Nothing has landed yet. | BrightSideOfNews round-up 2026-08-11 |
| All other states | Unresolved | No ban statute or named enforcement action sourced as of the date shown | Sweepstakes sites generally operate; "not banned" is an absence of action, not an endorsement of legality, and several legislatures have bills in motion. | VegasInsider 50-state guide 2026-08-11 |
Rows are admitted only with a source; where a state's position cannot be established from one, it sits under “All other states” rather than being guessed. Row dates are each row's own verification date; rows older than 90 days are re-verified or visibly downgraded at our monthly audit.
Why the wall came down
The regulatory logic across all these states is the same sentence: the dual-currency system is a cosmetic distinction, and a casino you can pay into and cash out of is a casino. Attorneys general reached that conclusion in materially identical terms from California to Tennessee, and a coalition of all fifty state AGs has asked the Department of Justice to take it federal, a request that is still pending. The open questions are which unresolved legislatures codify next, and whether the federal government moves first.
Update log
Tracker opened with 14 ban/enforcement states, the Illinois cease-and-desist wave, the pending Oklahoma effective date (1 Nov 2026) and the pending federal question. Six operators have shut down nationally since October 2025.
Updated as states act; entries append-only, corrections dated. Next scheduled review: 1 November 2026 (the Oklahoma effective date), earlier on any new state action.
The same “is it actually gambling?” fight is running in a second arena: CFTC-regulated prediction markets are litigating state gambling law across four courts right now, tracked on our prediction markets legality tracker.